ALBERT

Notes: When oligopolists merge, the new firm enjoys a lower cost structure than any of its premerger constituent parts. This is because of rationalization economies which are created as facilities previously operated at disparate marginal cost levels come under common control. The resultant price-decreasing force is countered by the loss of competition due to the merger. The latter can stem not only from reduction in the number of competitors, but also from the possibility that, with a more concentrated market structure, firms’conjectures about each others’reactions will move in the direction of being more cooperative. The paper shows that, under normal conditions, the effects of diminished competition outweigh those of rationalization so that a price increase will result from the merger. In addition, the equivalence of merger to the imposition of taxes is exploited to derive a market-share based test for mergers to cause welfare decreases. This complements a test proposed by Farrell and Shapiro that works only for welfare increases.

Notes: This paper explores an export subsidy game in an international duopoly in which governments of countries as well as firms hold conjectures about the response of other governments. In the framework with linear demand/quadratic cost functions, a homogeneous good and no home consumption, I shall obtain the relations among the conjectural variation of firms, that of governments, and the optimal subsidies for countries. And I shall show that if and only if firms hold the consistent conjectures, Nash type behavior (zero conjectural variation) of governments is consistent.

Notes: Currently available price series for slaves during the eighteenth century need to be treated with much caution, and it seems unlikely that large quantities of new evidence will be unearthed. Further progress toward the creation of more reliable price series will thus require new methods of estimation. In this paper, a new price series for slaves at the African coast is calculated using data relating to the number of slaves shipped from the coast by British traders and the value of trade goods bartered for them.

Notes: . An accounting framework is presented that can be used as a basis for a regional general equilibrium economic model that meaningfully incorporates both real and financial activity. The accounting framework describes a circular flow from regional income to credit base, and back to regional income, including the balance of payments identity. Both real market transactions and capital stock changes are explicitly recognized. Linkages between real activity flows and sectoral balance sheets are highlighted. Financial activity is recognized as a service, and all assets are assumed to be valued at market prices.

Notes: . We formulate the spatial Stackelberg-Nash-Cournot competitive network equilibrium problem as a variational inequality constrained mathematical program. Our model differs from previous models of Stackelberg oligopolistic competition in that it employs explicit shipping decision variables and a general network topology. That is, the production and distribution decisions of the Stackelberg firm are determined simultaneously over a discrete network. We explore the existence of solutions to the proposed model, and we also numerically test a sensitivity analysis based algorithm. In particular, we illustrate how sensitivity analysis results can be used to generate the Cournot reaction necessary to solve the Stackelberg problem.

Notes: . A general equilibrium multiperiod linear programming model of urban land use is used to identify reverse commutation as a rational response to economic change. Information about future economic conditions is complete, and capital is replaceable at finite cost. Export mixes are defined exogenously, and temporal shifts between activities of different land intensities are shown to induce reverse commutes as one way of avoiding the cost of land use change.

Notes: . Individuals’human capital investments in their regions, industries, and occupations are measured as a function of the years they spend in their current region, industry, or occupation, and these investments are shown empirically to influence migration. There is an interesting life cycle pattern to migration: it falls rapidly with new investments, but then resurfaces as an opportunity to renew investments and increase the growth rate of income. Income regressions substantiate the life cycle path of income growth implied by the migration model.

Notes: . We give a very simple formula for obtaining covariance matrices of gravity model parameter estimates. We investigate bias and robustness of parameter estimates, as well as the convergence of the procedure given in Sen (1986) for obtaining these estimates.

Notes: Book reviewed in this article: Place, Migration, and Development in the Third World: An Alternative View, by Lawrence A. Brown. Migration and Labor Market Adjustment, edited by Jouke van Dijk, Hendrik H. Folmer, Henry W. Herzog, Jr., and Alan M. Schlottmann. Quantitative Methods for Market-Oriented Economic Analysis over Space and Time, edited by Walter C. Labys, Takashi Takayama, and Noel D. Uri. Chaos and Socio-Spatial Dynamics, by Dimitrios S. Dendrinos and Michael Sonis. Spatial Data Analysis in the Social and Environmental Sciences, by Robert Haining. Economic Restructuring of the American Midwest, edited by Richard D. Bingham and Randall W. Eberts. An Empirical Assessment of Factors Shaping Regional Competitiveness in Problem Regions, by Commission of the European Communities. Regional Development Processes and Policies, edited by William H. Berentsen, Darrick R. Danta, and Eta Daróczi. Regional Studies and Rural Development, by Josef G. M. Hilhorst.

Notes: . The spatial price equilibrium on a general network may be formulated as a nonlinear-cost mathematical programming problem with simple constraints, when the decision variables are the path flows. The solution of this problem is difficult due to the very large number of variables (paths) and the impracticality of generating all the paths from all the origins to all the destinations.In this paper, we develop a Gauss-Seidel-Newton Projection algorithm and combine it with a restriction strategy. That makes it unnecessary to generate a priori all the paths. This algorithm may be further improved by exploiting the equivalence between the spatial price equilibrium on a general network and the network equilibrium. Computational results that we present in this paper demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed solution algorithms.

Notes: Remodelling Geography, edited by Bill Macmillan. Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory, by Edward W. Soja. The Condition of Postmodernity An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, by David Harvey. Spatial Structures, by Martin J. Beckmann and Tönu Puu. Advanced Transport and Spatial Systems Models: Applications to Korea, by Tschangho John Kim, in association with Sunduck Suh. Travel Behaviour Research, edited by the International Association for Travel Behaviour. The Evolution of Regional Economies: Entrepreneurship and Macroeconomic Change, by Luis Suarez-Villa. Urban Problems in Western Europe, by Paul C. Cheshire and Dennis G. Hay. The Human Geography of Eastern Europe, by David Turnock. ECESIS: An Interregional Economic-Demographic Model of the United States, by Paul M. Beaumont. Natural Landscape Amenities and Suburban Growth Metropolitan Chicago, 1970-1980, by Christopher Mueller-Wille. Evaluation Methods for Urban and Regional Plans: Essays in Memory of Morris Hill, edited by Daniel Shefer and Henk Voogd. Region as a Socio-Environmental System: An Introduction to a Systemic Regional Geography, by Dov Nir. Tourist Development, 2nd edition, by Douglas Pearce. Tourism Analysis: A Handbook, by Stephen L. J. Smith. The Community Tourism Industry Imperative: The Necessity, the Opportunity, Its Potential, by Uel Blank.

Notes: In this paper, I use estimates of the parameters of an industry demand function and a CES production function for Northern Ireland manufacturing in order to measure the relative impact of factor subsidies on employment, capital, and output. A simulation model is able to differentiate the output and substitution effects of subsidies. The results indicate that since manufacturing industry in the province tends to operate with a labor-intensive technology and, since its price-elasticity of demand for output is very low, the employment creating effects of capital subsidies are strongly negative.

Notes: In this paper, we given an economic interpretation of Kuhn's dual of the Steiner-Weber problem. It depends essentially on the notion that different transportation systems arerelevant for the primal and the dual. Moreover, the Euclidean metric underlies the interpretation of the primal, the block one that of the dual.

Notes: . In this paper, I present a model incorporating two kinds of spatial labor markets: a centralized competitive market at the central business district (CBD) and dispersed local markets across economic space under imperfect competition. Wage differentials and the size of the two types of markets are endogenously determined by rational choices of workers as well as profit maximization of firms. Workers can exercise rational choices with respect to market places where they commute and supply their labor. In this model, I attempt, in effect, to integrate the Hotelling-type paradigm and the Samuelson-type paradigm in a consistent spatial setting.

Notes: . This paper presents a full-analogue regression model of the deterministic shift-share method, for analyzing the components of regional employment change. The model is formulated as a constrained least squares regression problem. This leads to a direct determination of estimates for the national, industrial, and regional growth coefficients. The statistical significance of these coefficients and the overall model can then be tested by using standard regression test statistics.

Notes: This paper examines two-dimensional spatial competition, with Bertrand price determination. With a block metric, equilibrium prices are significantly lower when market areas are squares than when they are diamonds (rotated squares) of the same size. If demand density grows, waves of entry occur, and the shapes of market areas change from squares to diamonds and back to squares again. The former change leaves prim unchanged, whereas the latter cuts prices in half. Results are also derived for a Euclidean metric, with square and hexagonal market areas. Optimal waves of entry are examined with the block metric. With either metric, the socially optimal market shape becomes suboptimal if market areas are constrained to be of the zero-profit size.

Notes: In this paper, we examine the effects of state land-use controls on the aggregate demand and supply of residential land. Previous studies have examined the effect of land-use regulation on housing prices using single-equation estimation. We estimate a three-equation intejurisdidional supply-demand model of land-use controls. Our results suggest that land-use regulations have a significant impact on both the demand and supply of residentid land as expected.

Notes: Housing the Homeless and Poor: New Partnerships among the Private, Public, and Third Sectors, edited by George Fallis and Alex Murray Escalating Land Values: Causes and Consequences for the Next Decade, edited by Benjamin Chinitz.

Notes: . A pooled cross-section time-series approach is used to test the hypothesis that differences in property tax rates between and across regions exert an excise-tax impact on housing starts. Synthesizing the research regarding property tax incidence on housing markets and residential location with that of regional housing studies, an empirical model that allows for inter- and intraregional influences on housing starts is developed. Using county data from Wisconsin over a twelve-year span, I find that property tax rate differentials have a negative effect on the construction of single-family houses.

Notes: . Policy makers often try to raise a region's income by altering its industrial mix. However, such attempts to increase local income may have an adverse effect on the stability of the region's economy. In this paper, we develop single-, aggregate-, and multiregional portfolio models that can be used by policy makers to generate frontiers of risk/income-efficient industrial mixtures for a regional economy. These portfolio models are modified for application to the tourist industry in six regions of Spain. In practice, we find that the introduction of bounds on the magnitude of sector rebalancing has a major effect on the model solutions.

Notes: Book reviewed in this article: Figured Tapestry: Production, Markets, and Power in Philadelphia Textiles, 1885–1941, by Philip Scranton. Agriculture and National Development: Views on the Nineteenth Century, edited by Lou Ferleger. Urban Relocation in Archaic and Classical Greece: Flight and Consolidation, by Nancy H. Demand. The Capitalist Imperative: Territory, Technology, and Industrial Growth, by Michael Storper and Richard Walker. The Isolated City State: An Economic Geography of Urban Spatial Structure, by Yorgos Y. Papageorgiou. Post-Industrial Philadelphia: Structural Changes in the Metropolitan Economy, by William J. Stull and Janice Fanning Madden. The Location of Jobs in a Developing Metropolis: Patterns of Growth in Bogota and Cali, Columbia, by Kyu Sik Lee. The Economics of Housing Markets, by Richard F. Muth and Allen C. Goodman. Geographical Information Systems for Urban and Regional Planning, edited by Henk J. Scholten and John C. H. Stillwell. Spatial Energy Analysis, edited by Lars Lundqvist, Lars-Goran Mattsson, and Erik A. Eriksson. Transportation for the Future, edited by David F. Batten and Roland Thord. United States Railroad Policy: Uncle Sam at the Throttle, by Jeffrey Orenstein. Transportation Service to Small Rural Communities: The Effects of Deregulation, by John F. Due, Benjamin J. Allen, Mary R. Kihl, and Michael R. Crum. Bus Deregulation and Privatisation: An International Perspective, edited by John S. Dodgson and Neville Topham. Service Industries in Regional Development, by William J. Coffey and James J. McRae.

Notes: Book reviewed in this article: Essays in Honor of Walter Isard: Vol. 1, New Frontiers in Regional Science, and Vol. 2, Dynamics and Conflict in Regional Structural Change, edited by Manas Chatterji and Robert E. Kuenne. Regional Policy in a Changing World, by Niles Hansen, Benjamin Higgins, and Donald J. Savoie. The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America, by Nicholas Lemann. Route Choice: Wayfinding in Transport Networks, by Piet H. L. Bovy and Eliahu Stern. The New Suburbanization: Challenge to the Central City, by Thomas M. Stanback, Jr. America's Suburban Centers: The Land Use–Transportation Link, by Robert Cervero. Rural and Small Town America, by Glenn V. Fuguitt, David L. Brown, and Calvin L. Beale. Where North Meets South Cities, Space, and Politics on the United States-Mexico Border by Lawrence A. Herzog. International Migration and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Volume I, Overview; Volume II, Country Analyses, by Sharon Stanton Russell, Karen Jacobsen, and William Deane Stanley.

Notes: . A recent debate in the regional economics literature has focused attention on the motivation behind an individual's decision to migrate. Human-capital migration models emphasize labor market disequilibria whereas alternative (hedonic) migration models stress households’altered demand for nontraded goods. In this paper, we test the relative importance of these two possible motivations for moving between metropolitan areas. We use an intercity hedonic model to decompose wages into equilibrium and disequilibrium components. We then compare the separate influences of amenities and the disequilibrium component of wages on the distance moved between two metropolitan areas. Our findings indicate that both economic factors and amenity differentials are significant factors in explaining regional migration.

Notes: . In this paper we develop a method for establishing market definition in studies of intermodal competition. We employ the proposed method in a transportation model that yields estimates of the substitutability between truck and rail services for the transport of fresh fruits and vegetables. The model includes the produce being shipped as an input into the production of delivered produce. Our results demonstrate that fairly disaggregate market definitions are required to characterize adequately the intermodal substitution possibilities of interest. While disaggregate data are required for econometric estimation of the cost function, it is essential that elasticities be calculated at a disaggregate level as well. The elasticities reported are larger than reported in earlier work and provide strong evidence of vigorous intermodal competition in produce transportation markets.

Notes: . Intertemporal differences in input-output coefficients can be attributed to technological change and to changes in the mix of products composing the aggregate sectors of input-output models. In this work, we develop the theoretical foundation necessary to separate these changes for both the structural and Leontief inverse matrices. Using this foundation, we examine the relative empirical importance of technological and product-mix change. The product-mix effect is then combined with RAS estimates of the technological effect to form updated estimates of the inverse. Results show that the accuracy of updated input-output coefficients can be improved in this manner.

Notes: . The extent to which the value of locational attributes is capitalized into wages rather than rents is analyzed in a general equilibrium framework. This paper differs from earlier work by taking into account local and regional attributes and makes distinctions among residential, commercial, and mixed-use communities. The theory implies that in localities with both individuals and firms, wages and rents are simultaneously determined, while in exclusively residential localities the model is recursive. The major theoretical insights are consistent with estimations of the model using data from the University of Michigan's Panel Study of Income Dynamics.

Notes: . In this paper, we adapt recent developments in uncertainty modeling to the location choice paradigm. In particular, we analyze the impact of income and housing price uncertainty on housing demand and location demand characteristics in a partial equilibrium framework. We begin by recognizing that housing consumption cannot readily be altered in response to changes in income and price. We find that income and house price risk affect housing and location demands in different ways. Additionally, the spatial characteristics of price risk also affect consumer housing and location demands. For example, if housing price risk is lower farther from the central city, housing demand can be greater in those locations even with the higher transportation cost. Thus, over some locations, the expected price gradient could be positive.

Notes: . This paper investigates the resource allocational implications of intra-industrial externalities, i.e., variable returns to scale (VRS), in a two-region general equilibrium model of production under uncertainty. It is shown that most standard results concerning changes in the goods price ratio with constant returns to scale (CRS) under uncertainty generalize to VRS. In contrast, standard results concerning changes in factor endowments extend from CRS to decreasing returns to scale, but not to all permissible levels of increasing returns to scale. Thus, such theorems as factor price equalization and Rybczynski do not generalize to all real-world levels of VRS.

Notes: . Traditional models of regional diversification do not capture the trade-off between stability and living standards. In this paper, we characterize regions as open activity models subjected to both productivity and price shocks. We then partially rank small diversification policies by the direction in which they point away from the current industrial structure in mean-variance space. Some general patterns emerge. In particular, diversification for regional self-sufficiency and away from regional comparative advantage may be undesirable.

Notes: . Nearly all regional input-output models have been constructed without a proper accounting of inflows and outflows of personal income and personal consumption expenditures. Typically invoked is a no cross-payments assumption, analogous to the no cross-hauling assumption for commodities. We present a new accounting framework based on the classification of flows according to the location of income generation, receipt, and spending, and argue that only flows endogenous in all three respects should be part of a closed regional I-O model. We use the framework to compute the upward bias in multipliers in a typical regional I-O model. We also present several methods for estimating transboundary flows.

Notes: In this paper, we first develop a measure of total factor productivity (TFP) growth and summarize a source-of-growth analysis for the manufacturing sector of 48 states. As have others, we find little association between TFP growth differentials and output growth differentials for census regions. At the staterather than the regional level, however, we find a positive association between TFP growth and output growth. We use cross-sectional data to estimate the determinants of the variation in TFP growth. Two results emerge that are important for regional policy and for understanding national productivity trends. First, state investments in education and in transportation infrastructure may affect TFP growth. Second, energy price increases in the early 1970s had no differential effects on productivity growth across states. We also explore the determinants of manufacturing output growth and find that TFP growth, demand growth, wage growth, wage levels, and state corporate income tax rates are significant.

Notes: In this paper, we use recent advances in the theory of local public goods to develop more-complete measures of the fiscal impacts of population change. Each fiscal impact measure extends the average-cost-based simple multiplier. The service-based impact measure accounts for the public service production function. The local welfare measure further allows the size of the public budget to vary. The global welfare measure additionally introduces interneighborhood substitution of public services. These four nested measures are calculated for police servims in Vancouver. We demonstrate that the commonly used simple multiplier is an unreliable estimator of fiscal impacts.

Notes: Spatial pricing models have been used to illustrate a tariff's asymmetric effects on consumers located at different points in the protected economy, and to demonstrate that the optimum tariff for a small open spatial economy may be positive. In these models, the distribution of households has been taken as uniform and fixed.We extend the spatial model by allowing households to optimally locate and consume variable amounts of land, as well as the domestic- or foreign-produced good. Land consumption, location rents, and the distribution of consumers are endogenous, responding to tariff-induced changes in the delivered prices of the domestic and foreign goods. Within this limited general equilibrium framework, a neoclassical result resurfaces: from the perspective of private consumers, the optimum tariff in a small open economy is zero. The possibility of a positive optimum tariff, however, may remain intact in a more integrated model where domestic profits and tariff revenues are redistributed within the spatial economy.

Notes: AbstractThe convention currently in place (SSAP 13 revised) to account formally for industrial R&D expenditure is that qualifying development expenditure meeting strict viability criteria may be capitalised (treated as an asset) but that all other development and all research must be immediately expensed (written off). This study comprising interviews and postal responses was carried out to investigate the effect this convention has on managerial actions and decisions on R&D investment by companies, particularly by smaller high-technology ones.

Notes: AbstractThe authors discuss a method for merging the results of technical advancements with potential markets during the formulation phase of innovative product development. The method emphasizes direct contact with end-user organisations by multidisciplinary teams, the selection of champions of innovation as the source of useful and relevant insights, and a multi-stage discipline to produce operational definitions of new product opportunities. For people responsible for managing technical activity, the paper offers guidelines for the planning and implementation of search methods, insight generation and specification of innovative products.

Notes: AbstractAmong the industrial countries, different working divisions have evolved between manufacturing industry, governments and network operators, each being responsible for distinct parts of R&D in the telecommunications field. This paper provides a comparison of R&D in Japan and West Germany to several western industrial countries and highlights their diverse structures.For this quantitative assessment various indicators for science and technology (S&T) have been compiled systematically. The new aspect of this paper is that indicators, only some of which are well established, can be interconnected provided that appropriate limitations are recognised. A comprehensive indicator system for research and development in telecommunications is currently not available as far as the author is aware. Consequently, subjective expert assessments are essential for the present indicator systems to overcome incomplete links between indicators, their poor adaptation to one another and data availability problems. The statistical sections here are therefore supplemented by a series of personal discussions in various countries.

Notes: AbstractTechnology analysis is a new technomanagerial discipline that provides common frameworks for analysing individual technologies and their relationships to each other. It is used here to probe the development of a particular technology, namely that of permanent magnets.The paper traces the development of permanent magnets over the past decade and explores possible future improvements in performance parameters. The strength of magnets (i.e. energy product as expressed in kilo Joules per cubic metre) has increased from approximately 40 in the 1930s to approximately 400 at present.Future developments will be constrained by a barrier which seems to exist at approximately 525 kilo Joules per cubic metre. However this is viewed as a barrier that can be transcended and not as an immutable limit. It therefore signifies a possible breakthrough zone.S-curve theory leads analysts to speculate about a possible breakthrough during the five year period leading up to 1995. At that date magnetic strengths of 600+ kilo Joules per cubic metre could be aimed for.Increased magnetic strength will improve the performance parameters of all technologies utilising magnets, unleash new magnetic based technologies and threaten many traditional areas in the fields of matter processing, transporting and storing, energy processing, and information processing and storing.These effects will cascade through the entire technological landscape creating new markets and destroying others. The article gives an overview of these impacts on the technological landscape.

Notes: AbstractThis is the third paper to arise from the same piece of research concerned with the development of Expert Systems (ES's) in the management of R&D. The first paper described the overall approach to the work and summarised the problems encountered, whilst the second focused on the software side of the work and the problems it entailed.In this paper the focus is on the process of project evaluation itself. The simple purpose of creating an ES is to capture the expertise of those well versed in a particular field and try to reproduce it in the ES. In this work, however, the hypotheses on which the development of the ES was based, and their subsequent support by considering actual projects, cast doubt on the theoretical background of project evaluation as reviewed in literature. The basis of these doubts is set out in this paper together with discussion on what is necessary to improve the situation. It was necessary to come to these conclusions prior to the development of a final ES on project evaluation, and is here published not only because of its interest in its own right, but so that others who have already worked in the field might reconsider their data in the light of the criticisms. By this means they would have a contribution to make to a better understanding of evaluation and of the on-going work on a new ES, now developed and operational, which has been designed as a research tool as well as its normal function of giving managerial advice.

Notes: AbstractThe enzyme industry is characterised by a rapid rate of technological change and market dynamism. There are over 2000 different types of enzymes with patent cover and yet only a fraction of these have been successfully commercially exploited. What innovation strategies are used by UK suppliers? Could the success rate be improved?This paper reports the findings of a recent survey of UK enzyme suppliers to investigate their approaches to the management of innovation. The main thrust of the research considered the role of marketing and especially the role of customer involvement in the innovation process. A variety of approaches were found but essentially the customer has a fairly restricted part to play in innovation in this dynamic and technological market.

Notes: The Viable System Model—interpretations and applications of Stafford Beer's VSM, Raul Espejo & Roger Harnden (Eds) Successful Product Development, Management Practices in American and British Firms, Axel Johne and Patricia Snelson. Taking Research Seriously: Means of improving and assessing the use and dissemination of research. Ann Richardson, Christine Jackson and Wendy Sykes. Conceptual Toolmaking: Expert Systems of the Mind, Jerry Rhodes Management of R&D Organisations: Managing the Unmanagable, R. K. Jain and H. C. Triandis Technological and Market Innovation, H. Nystrom

Notes: For all the advances in the management of software research and development over the last few years, it is never easy to ensure that complex programmes of research are efficiently directed and assessed. There are a number of inherent difficulties that contribute to this, for instance—the complexity of modern technology, the abstract nature of research and the need to work in an area which is, by definition, largely unexplored. This paper discusses two techniques aimed at easing the evaluation of complex projects. Both techniques are designed to ensure that critical decisions and their dependencies are explicitly addressed. The effectiveness of the techniques is illustrated by their application to research in software engineering.

Notes: This paper aims at helping innovators to rethink their overall approach to industrial design in product innovation. It examines the role of industrial design in product innovation and demonstrates with both normative and empirical evidence that industrial design is still neglected in British manufacturing industry. The research reveals that firms satisfied their industrial design needs through engineering designers in preference to professional industrial designers. It is concluded that to make the most of design and create market-winning products, the synthesising, interfacing and ‘integratorial’ approach of an industrial designer is of paramount importance; engineering design, while both necessary and crucial, is by itself insufficient to ensure that innovative products satisfy physical form as well as functional requirements of customers/users. The paper warns that the continued inattention to industrial design may place UK firms at a competitive disadvantage in international markets.

Notes: Locational determinants are an important input into any internationalisation process, but they are difficult to rank and measure. This paper describes an attempt to do both in the arena of the international pharmaceutical industry. In particular, the dispersal of R&D activities to six target countries (US, UK, West Germany, France, Italy, Japan) is examined using thirty location-specific factors which are analysed in detail. In addition, indicators of differentiation between the perspectives of US and European firms are derived.

Notes: This paper addresses the issue of assessing the technical expertise within the organization of a large firm.It presents the results of a study that examined the technical competence of the human resources of a large, high technology company. Various data about the company's technical professionals (engineers, researchers, etc.) were systematically identified and collected.A general framework for the Strategic Management of Technology is first presented to explain the importance of constructing a firm's portfolio of technologies and competence.The design and construction methodology of the “Who's Who in Technology” (WWT) is then briefly described. Several possible uses of this tool are subsequently mentioned.Analyses across the technical staff population using the WWT data base are then presented in greater detail. They show how one may understand (1) the accumulation and utilization of the firm's competence over time, (2) the distribution of expertise within the organization, (3) the level of expertise reached, (4) the age distribution of the technical professionals, (5) the nature of the work experience of the technical staff, etc.The WWT scheme appears to be a practical and enlightening way to gain insight into a firm's portfolio of technical competence, while also providing the basis for a more appropriate methodology in technical human resource planning.Some limits of the tool are finally presented and discussed.

Notes: The work here described is the early stages of a programme to develop a series of Expert Systems (ES's) in the management of R&D.In particular, the development of a prototype ES using a package program Crystal Ver. 2.1 is the focus together with the problems encountered.The literature had suggested that the use of such packages facilitated the process for those exploring ES's. What was not clear from the literature or the program manuals was the limited range of problems which could be handled. The programs have a rigid structure such that unless the logic of the problem solving process matches that of the program, severe difficulties will ensue.This paper outlines the inherent structure of the programs and indicates the kind of problems which would fit. Specific problems which were encountered when trying to stretch the use of the program are explained in detail. It goes on to explain how these problems were got round using Lotus 1–2–3 which proved far more flexible in practice. This kind of understanding is essential if ES's are to become every-day tools of R&D management.The objective in developing the Expert System (ES) was for it to be advisory to those preparing project proposals for possible submission to higher management within the context of an R&D laboratory. Thus the intention was to capture the expertise of senior managers, make it available to more junior ones, and thereby improve the quality of their work. This concept proved to be naive in that the expertise proved to be so diffuse that a wholly new rationale to structure the expertise had to be developed. This process, the subsequent development into a prototype ES, and its evaluation, have already been published (Wilkinson, 1991).The literature on ES's had suggested that the use of available package programs was straight forward and that the real problem was in establishing the expertise to be used and in structuring it to fit the program. This too proved to be an over-simplification. When this work started, the exact nature of the package programs had not been spelt out adequately. The purpose of this paper, Part II, is to describe their inherent structure and the limitations which this imposes on the kind of problems for which they can be used.The insights gained in this work into the evaluation of projects and the inadequacies of previous evaluation techniques will form the contents of Part III of this series of papers.

Notes: This paper investigates changes in factors bearing on technology adoption decisions in small manufacturing firms. It is hypothesized that, as a firm's experience with technology increases and its technological capabilities grow, the decision process is gradually modified and puts more weight on those factors which are more closely related to the true potential of the technology. An empirical study shows the more innovative firms to have an outward orientation dominated by clients and suppliers, and to pay more attention to the added flexibility brought about by new technology. It is also shown that functional groups within the company play a more important role in the decision-making process.

Notes: The terms ‘innovation’ and ‘creativity’ are in danger of complete degeneracy into a single blurred catch-all concept. This paper examines ‘potted thinking', and some of the main sources of confusion in everyday thinking, and then considers four current theories which help resolve aspects of the confusion. Creativity is studied as intrinsically motivated behaviours and as a form of intelligence. Creativity and Innovation are compared within a systems framework, and as examples of complex problem-solving. The models help distinguish the highly personal nature of the creative process and the essentially social nature of the innovation process.

Notes: Using the small and medium size firms in the US as a sample, this paper reports on interrelationship among patents, publications and new products. Correlates of R&D expenditure, patents and papers and new products are presented. Relationships between firm size and R&D output and productivity are also investigated.Since the study is based on correlational analysis, causal inferences are not drawn. The data indicates that the three indicators are related, but their strength of relationship varies with industries. Growth of sales is related with new products, but not with patents or papers.Although the data point to the fact that small firms are more productive than their larger counterparts, there are many reasons to come to such a sweeping generalisation. Reporting of R&D data is not reliable for small firms as the very definition of R&D differs from firm to firm. Nature of R&D also changes as the firm grows in size; opportunities for patents or new products also change accordingly. These make it difficult to accurately measure and compare the R&D efficiency across firms of different sizes.

Notes: While small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can enjoy a number of behavioural advantages over their larger counterparts in the innovation process (e.g. rapid response to external threats and opportunities; efficient internal communication; interactive management style), they can also suffer from a number of mainly material disadvantages (e.g. inability to spread risk over a portfolio of new products; difficulties in market start-up abroad; problems in funding longer-term R&D). One area in which SMEs can suffer a marked disadvantage is that of establishing the appropriate network of contacts with external sources of scientific and technological expertise and advice.This paper addresses the issue of SMEs’ external linkages and presents data from a number of studies showing the importance of in-house technical skills to linkage activity; the importance of complementary between in-house and external know-how accumulation; and the importance of technology strategy in guiding the accumulation process. SME-oriented public technology policies should be adapted to the specific needs of SMEs in that they should focus on facilitating vertical (supplier-manufacturercustomer) linkages and offer support throughout the innovation chain from pre- competitive research through to product development.Numerous studies testify to the importance of firms extensively ‘networking’ in order to improve innovation potential (for example, Mowery, 1988; Contractor and Lorange, 1988; CEST, 1990). The majority of these studies focus on formal technology agreements, such as R&D joint ventures,; tend to feature large firm collaboration rather than that undertaken by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and while they often refer to the management problems involved in collaboration, few examine their management in any depth.This paper will describe the extensive collaborations of innovative SMEs, and will emphasise how the employment of key personnel affects the range and scope of linkages. It will highlight the broad diversity of linkages used by SMEs for technological development. And, by means of a case study of a highly technologically advanced SME, it will examine some of the most important management problems facing the collaborative process.

Notes: This paper examines the role of university science parks in fostering interorganizational technology transfers and technological development. We first try to contrast the development of science parks with the theoretical and empirical findings from scholarly work in the area of the management of technology. This theoretical context allows us to interpret and to discuss empirical data collected from Belgian and Dutch science park firms. The data collection mainly focused on the interactions of park-based firms with their external R&D environment. This analysis leads to two important findings: (1) the level of R&D activity at the tenants is rather moderate for most of the parks studied, and (2) the tension between ‘regionalism’ and ‘internationalism’ in contemporary R&D management.In the wake of this second finding, arguments are presented to complement and even to change the focus from the ‘miniature’ R&D network which might develop on university science parks toward the ‘R&D community’ network holding together researchers working on a particular, interrelated set of scientific and technological problems wherever they may be located around the globe. Moreover, it is argued that a unified theory on the emergence and the development of new technologies is badly needed. Only if the dynamics underlying the development of a new technology are unravelled and better understood can technology policies, such as the ones involving the creation of science parks, be targeted more effectively.

Notes: The Evolution of Technology. George Basalla. Cambridge University Press, 248 pages. Paperback $8.95.

Notes: The authors relate and analyse the case of a long-running patent conflict between two very large multinational firms in the synthetic fibre business - AKZO and Du Pont. The subject of the conflict was a new fibre of the aramid dass. They show that the case reveals deficiencies in international patent law in need of correction.The analysis is conducted with the aid of social network theory applied to pub-lished information and data supplied by AKZO and other sources. The theory takes as its starting point that when a number of related functional groups unite behind a common and vital interest the pursuit of this interest becomes virtually unstoppable. In this case the crucial social network was formed first within AKZO and then extended outside to include politicians and government. It propelled the firm to pursue to the end attempts to by-pass a patent position held by Du Pont.The paper reveals that an apparently strong patent position can actually help a rival to circumvent it. This defect in the patent law is leading companies to avoid patenting and to rely instead on secrecy alone. The authors believe that this will act against the public interest, for exam-ple, by preventing thorough public assessment of a new technology before it is implemented. They argue for changes in the patent law to reduce this risk.

Notes: The new product process comprises the set of activities that move the product from idea to launch. The authors investigated the new product process activities of firms in Australia, England and Belgium. Objectives of the research were to determine—what activities are undertaken in the new product process? How proficiently are these activities performed and what improvements are needed? whether the sorts of activities undertaken and their proficiency affect project success or failure. Since these activities are largely under the control of management, the deeper is our understanding of new product process activities, the greater the scope for improved product innovation management.

Notes: This paper reports interim results obtained from research on the development of an expert system originally intended to be advisory to managers at all levels of R&D on the selection of projects. Whilst diversity had been expected, when the ‘Experts’ were consulted, there was a total absence of agreement as to how projects were selected.This led to a shift in objectives. The first shift was from project selection to project evaluation which was identified as the real activity which managers undertook in conditions where the number of projects was likely to exceed the resources available. The second was to try to classify projects such that projects in one class might have similar criteria for evaluationIn pursuit of these new objectives, the rigorous thinking necessary to structure the guidance of the ‘Experts’ into an expert system gave new insights into the nature of projects themselves and their management in support of corporate strategy. This paper sets these out and will be followed by Pt. II which will report on structuring the actual Expert System, and Pt. Ill giving the details of the managerial approach and the decision support process of the actual expert system

Notes: This paper explores the possibility of combining multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis with the Delphi method to allow for the ordinal quantification of important attributes of technology. To demonstrate implementation of this method, 18 scientists and managers, with 227 pooled years of relevant industrial experience, were asked to assess the application of several pharmaceutical drug delivery technologies to particular prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) products. Study participants were only asked to think about variables intrinsic to the concept of technology (here, differentiation, sophistication, and development cost) and to assume exogenous variables such as price as background constant. For comparable sets of technology-product combinations participant evaluations were used to assess the following pilot MLR model in which:Market share = a +βd Differentiation +βS Sophistication +βc Development Cost.For OTC products, Differentiation, and to some extent Sophistication, were found to be the most important significant independent variables. For Rx products, Sophistication was the major significant independent variable. These findings make sense considering that OTC products are sold directly to end users whereas Rx products are dispensed through physicians or pharmacists.Further studies are warranted to see if given the statistical superiority of pooled consensus over individual forecasts, the method described here might also be used to help choose revenue-maximizing products and to discover relevant product development principles.

Notes: This article reports a comparative study of six in-house and eight independent industrial R&D organisations. These organisations are analysed in terms of three types of control strategy - market control, hierarchical control and professional control. The paper suggests that the professional control strategy, emergent after World War Two, is now being increasingly challenged by market control strategies. R&D organisations under or adopting market control are shown to enjoy marked productivity advantages. The distinctive managerial practices of market controlled R&D are analysed. It is concluded that many in-house laboratories have much to gain by partial adoption of these market control practices.

Notes: It is probably safe to say that today it is universally accepted and often common knowledge that cooperation between product development and the market functions is crucial for the ability of companies to develop market oriented products. Likewise, there are some strong indications that well functioning cooperation between production and product development is crucial for the development of products that are efficient to manufacture. However, no satisfactory solutions have yet been found to the issues of integration and cooperation. Although there is a consensus of opinion among companies that the need for cooperation is very great, a number of issues still remain to be solved. It is, for example, not clear on which issues cooperation should take place, nor which functions should be involved, nor yet how this should be done. This paper tries to answer some of these questions.

Notes: Since 1971, that is nine years after gaining its independence, Algeria has among some Third World countries formulated an ambitious Science and Technology (S&T) Policy. In the last few years, the relevant administrative structure has been completed by installing a centralised body at the highest level. Policy itself has changed very little, and remained in some aspects well behind developments in the structure. In this paper, the author intends to consider the evolution of both structure and policy of Algeria's research and development (R&D); and the extent of their coherence or harmony and their linkages with industry.Even though structure and policy are the key factors affecting R&D effectiveness of a country, no significant success could be achieved without strengthening the relevant network allowing for the technical competence to be used effectively. Hence, the main theme of the paper concentrates on Algeria's need to review its R&D system to allow both structure and policy to be effective or cause relevant activities to be integrated within the production system, build better technological capabilities, and work for a more efficient industrial development.